Whether you admit it or not, whether you know it or not, you are amazingly blessed. But you don’t know how much you are blessed until you start counting all He gives as gifts. The fact that you are reading this, is a sign that you are still alive, right? You can breathe, see, smile and simply enjoy life. Living a blessed life doesn’t mean you won’t have any trials or problems, it’s actually the contrary; you have trials and problems but you have learned how to not stress so much about them and simply learned how to surrender to Jesus and let Him take care of all your battles.

Why stress about anything?

“Weeping may last through the night, but joy comes in the morning”. Psalm 30:5 (Only God knows how much I love this verse!)

“For everything there is a season, a time for every activity under heaven. A time to cry and a time to laugh”. Ecclesiastes 3:1;4

If we deal with trials and tribulations the right way, not trying to ignore them, but facing them with the strength that God has given us, we grow spiritually and we become more understanding of others who may be going through the same battles. One of my favorite quotes goes like, “The most beautiful people we have known are those who have known defeat, known suffering, known struggle, known loss, and have found their way out of the depths. These persons have an appreciation, a sensitivity, and an understanding of life that fills them with compassion, gentleness, and a deep loving concern. Beautiful people do not just happen”. ― Elisabeth Kübler-Ross

There is something about knowing that you are blessed that makes you want to be a blessing. But my question is: why are you blessed? what did you do that makes you deserving of your blessings? I can only speak for myself, I know I am not deserving of every blessing I have. In part, I know I am blessed because of my parents and the lives they led. Let me explain what I mean:

A Call to Holy Life

Depending on how you live your life now, the offspring that will come from you may be called blessed or cursed, you get to choose.

Wouldn’t it be amazing to know that your kids and your grandkids will be blessed because you led a life of faithfulness to God?

Genesis 22:15-18: And the angel of the Lord called to Abraham a second time from heaven and said, “By myself I have sworn, declares the Lord, because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, I will surely bless you, and I will surely multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore. And your offspring shall possess the gate of his enemies, and in your offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because you have obeyed my voice.”

All nations on earth will find themselves blessed through your descendants because you obeyed Me.

This sounds like a huge responsibility, right? The fact that I have to live in a way that will be a blessing to my offsprings sounds like a huge task, doesn’t it?

But here is a thing: It’s not complicated when you focus on two things: being holy and faithful to God.

Abraham offspring’s were blessed because Abraham was faithful to God’s call. Abraham wasn’t looking for some blessing for his offspring when he did what God told him to do. Abraham was just being faithful to the God he knew was faithful.

The truth is, the more our eyes are opened to see God’s faithfulness, the easier it gets for us to be faithful to Him and to wholeheartedly trust Him because we can have eyes and be completely oblivious of what God is doing. The Bible says in Psalm 135:15-17, “The idols of the nations are silver and gold, the work of human hands. They have mouths, but do not speak; they have eyes, but do not see; they have ears, but do not hear, nor is there any breath in their mouths”.

Open our eyes Lord, we want to see You.
Open our eyes Lord so we can clearly see the works of Your hands.

Let’s be honest for a minute, what does a 21 year old know about Holy? What do I know of Holiness?

You would be right if you guessed that I don’t know much about holiness; but I know we can learn a lot about holiness from the God-man Himself, the only One who perfectly lived holy in the eyes of the Lord and who modeled for us what it is to walk holy and blameless.

To Live is Christ

The number one key to holiness is making Jesus Christ your absolute everything. Not only in words (the Bible says that even demons believe there is a God), but in deeds.

Chris Tomlin wrote the following, “In Acts 11, at the end of verse 26, it says, “The disciples were called Christians first at Antioch.” What I find interesting is the simple thought that the Christians didn’t name themselves. But rather, they were called (or named) “Christians” by those watching their lives. I wonder if it would be the same today. Could someone look at your life or look at my life and name me a Christian?” 

Let’s ask ourselves that question again, could someone look at our lives and name us CHRISTians? Jesus has to be our everything in terms of how we live our lives. 

“For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me. Yet which I shall choose I cannot tell.” Philippians 2:21-22

Paul was so consumed with Jesus that it didn’t matter if he lived or died. Life meant fruitful labor for him and faithfulness towards the Lord, and death was just a doorway that leads to our ever faithful heavenly father. The reason why many of us fear death is because we are so consumed by our pity little lives. We care so much about earthly things that we lose sight of what’s going to matter eternally! We are more focused on how we portray ourselves on social media. We value sounding smart and knowledgeable on Facebook or twitter, more than we strive to be faithful to the Lord. We spent hours and hours, wanting to be known and liked instead of going to the One who gives us worth. How pathetic have we become, really? The worth that we strive for in today’s foolish things can only be found in Christ. We should focus on accomplishing our God-given destiny, and giving glory to God in all we do. Because after all has been said and done, what will matter at the end of our lives is knowing that we completed the task that God has given each and everyone of us and to be able to hear these words, “Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your Master“. Matthew 25:23

Why would I fear death if I know I have accomplished what I was called to do?

If I make Christ my life, that means total obedience to the Father.
If I make Christ my life, that means faithfulness to the Father.
If I make Christ my life, that means total surrender to the Father.
If I make Christ my life, that means total focus on the Father.
If I make Christ my life, holy is what I will become.

Please, hear me, I am not saying that making Jesus your everything in deeds is easy, no, I am well aware that it’s hard, because I know I fail at this everyday; but this is not an excuse for me to give up, on the contrary it’s a beautiful reminder that it’s Christ who will enable me and give me strength to live a holy life.

“God’s commands to us are actually given to the life of His son in us, Consequently, to our human nature in which God’s Son has been formed (see Galatians 4:19), His commands are difficult. But they becomes divinely easy once we obey.” Oswald Chambers

We are all blessed mainly because a Man laid down His life down so that we could be set free. We are all blessed because a Man left a perfect place so that He could redeem us to Himself. He became nothing in order to make us something. We once were seen as sinners, but now we are called beloved. When you know that Someone laid down His life for you, you gotta make your life matter. And how else can you make your life matter unless you make Christ your everything, which in turn will lead to your holiness.

Lord, this is our prayer today, “let our manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Jesus Christ… standing firm in One spirit, with One mind striving side by side for the faith of the gospel…” Philippians 1:27